SMITHSONIAN ANNOUNCES 2008 LUCELIA AWARD NOMINEES

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has announced the nominees for the museum’s 2008 Lucelia Artist Award. The fifteen nominees are Doug Aitken, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Slater Bradley, Matthew Buckingham, Mark Dion, Keith Edmier, Spencer Finch, Harrell Fletcher, Mark Grotjahn, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Rachel Harrison, Zoe Leonard, Suzanne McClelland, Wangechi Mutu, and Dana Schutz. Nominated artists work in a diverse range of media including film, installation, mixed media, painting, photography, sculpture, and video. The Lucelia Artist Award is part of the museum’s ongoing commitment to contemporary art and artists through annual exhibitions, acquisitions, awards, and public programs. “For eight years, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has had the wonderful opportunity, thanks in part to the annual Lucelia Artist Award, to engage in an exciting conversation with artists, curators, critics, and scholars about the ever-changing state of the contemporary art community in the United States,” said Elizabeth Broun, the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Lucelia Artist Award, established in 2001, annually recognizes an American artist younger than fifty who has produced a significant body of work and consistently demonstrates exceptional creativity. Jurors nominate artists who will be recognized as one of the most important and influential artists of his or her time. The twenty-five-thousand-dollar award is intended to encourage the artist’s future development and experimentation. Previous winners were Jessica Stockholder (2007); Matthew Coolidge, director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation (2006); Andrea Zittel (2005); Kara Walker (2004); Rirkrit Tiravanija (2003); Liz Larner (2002); and Jorge Pardo (2001). Applications are not accepted for this award.